LONDON: Lloyds Banking Group has sold US mortgage-backed securities for £3.3 billion ($5 billion, 3.8 billion euros), boosting its capital base in the process, the British state-rescued lender said on Friday.
The sale is part of a programme to sell non-strategic assets and the proceeds will be used to strengthen its capital by £1.4 billion, part-nationalised LBG said.
"Lloyds Banking Group plc announces today that it has agreed the sale of a portfolio of US RMBS residential mortgage backed securities to a number of different institutions for a cash consideration of £3.3 billion," LBG said in a statement.
"The transaction is part of the Group's continued capital accretive non-core asset reduction," the bank said.
LBG is 39-percent owned by the British government after a state bailout in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.
LBG shares were down 0.40 percent at 61.55 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was 0.87-percent lower at 6,599.52 points in morning trade after the announcement.
LBG was created by a merger of Lloyds TSB and rival British lender HBOS following the financial crisis and ahead of its state rescue.
Earlier in May, the bank earlier said its chairman Winfried Bischoff would retire from the post by the middle of next year after overseeing a partial turnaround of the lender.
LBG recently announced that it had rebounded into net profit during the first quarter of 2013 on the back of rising income, deep cost-cutting and falling impairment charges.
But it has failed in a bid to sell 632 branches at a loss to The Co-operative Group. The branches will now be floated on the London stock market under the bank's TSB name, LBG said in April. (AFP)
